[ExI] Religious Idiocy Triumphs Over Science Yet Again

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2015-12-04 21:47, Will Steinberg wrote:
>
> Maybe try and learn more about the universe by studying native 
> Hawaiian religion.  Especially cosmogonies. I've found that religions 
> around the world tend to retain a similar universal origin story that 
> is very compelling, abstract, and similar to the scientific perspective.
>
Yes, my ancestors figured out that the world was created when fire and 
ice mixed. Then a giant cow emerged from the nothingness, licking a 
giant from the ice. When he was murdered the current world was built 
from the carcass. Clouds are pieces of brain. Just like in current science.

> Side question, I wonder, when did humans start having sex like 
> today--passionately, and with with the pleasure of both parties 
> considered?
>
There is actually some research on this. One relevant paper is Eastwick, 
P. W. (2009). Beyond the pleistocene: using phylogeny and constraint to 
inform the evolutionary psychology of human mating. /Psychological 
bulletin/, 135(5), 794.
http://pauleastwick.com/s/Eastwick2009PBull.pdf
which suggests you should expect it to have emerged in /Homo erectus/ 
about 2 mya.

Basically, the IMHO dominant view in the field is that romantic love is 
a “commitment device” for motivating pair-bonding in humans. We need it 
beyond the normal mammalian mothering instincts/maternal-child bonding 
because of the long infancy requires reliable two parent rearing, and 
evolution likely exapted the maternal-child bonding system into a 
pair-bonding system between the parents.


-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University

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